In February, just weeks after the earthquake, I visited the Diakonos orphanage just outside Port-Au Prince in Haiti. Obviously they were in great need of food, water and the basic essentials to survive. You can see my previous post and images to learn more.

Devenson is bailing their flooded tent. image by Diakonos

This is the courtyard where the children sleep on mats. February 2010

A boy gets a cup of water from the orphanage water supply

Right now the orphanage is getting flooded by the summer rains. Children are literally having to stay awake at night to bail flood water. The children sleep outside many nights because the building is unsafe. With the rains you can imagine the children do not get much sleep.

NEEDS
The orphanage has many needs. Right now food and water is still an issue.

Beds
I am working on getting beds or cots for the children so the children do not have to sleep on the ground. I plan on sending 30+ cots via boat in the next few weeks.

Water
They are looking to dig a well so they can have water on site. Right now they are purchasing water which is costing about $250/mo. If they have a well they should be able to sell water to the neighborhood.

Truck
The orphanage does not have any transportation. Everything must be within walking distance. A pickup truck would give them the ability to gather more resources and provide taxi service for income.

If you are interested in helping with any of the above or have suggestions feel free to contact me.

MORE:
Diakonos Article

As most of you know I traveled to Port-Au-Prince, Haiti in February document humanitarian work at an orphanage. Needless to say it was a very long trip. Traveling with me were two members from the organization Mission Love Seeds.

VIDEO QUICK CLIP
Jimani Border

The half of the wall that's still standing guarding the Diakonos orphanage

Before heading to bed we managed to get the tents setup.

Orphanage wall destroyed by earthquake. Haiti February 2010

Though the trip was long, it was productive. I did learn it is not easy to get to Port-Au-Prince, especially when there are no commercial flights. We had to fly to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic, then take a ten hour bus ride to Port-Au-Prince. Three of those hours were spent crossing the border at Jimani. Though Jimani is one of the main border crossings into Haiti, it is a complete mess. I can see why it is nearly impossible to get supplies in via the Dominican Republic.

From my Twitter Feed…
“Loaded on a busload of people from all over world making their way to 5:55 AM Feb 9th via txt”
Still at border at Jimani… #Haiti 1:35 PM Feb 9th via txt
Still on bus… must be close to PAP. #Haiti 5:13 PM Feb 9th via txt

While in Santo Domingo we met up with Martine and Jean Luc, representatives of the Diakonos International orphanage in Haiti. This is the orphanage we will be visiting in Carrefour, a city to the west of Port-Au-Prince.

We arrived in Port-Au-Prince sometime that evening. Two vans were waiting to carry us to the orphanage in Carrefour. Because it was night and there was no electricity in Port-Au-Prince, we could not see the devastation left by the earthquake. Our van crept slowly through the city weaving to avoiding rubble and parts of buildings laying in the streets. Our headlights provided the only source of light giving us the occasional glimpse of the destruction all around us. Though one of our vans broke down and the other overheated we managed to make it to the orphanage.

Like most homes in the area there is a large wall surrounding the orphanage. In the dark of night we are ushered through a large gate where thirty kids are waiting to greet us. They welcome us with a song.

The orphanage sits on a corner lot approximately fifty by one hundred feet. A concrete building sits on one side and the rest consist of a small courtyard. An eight foot wall surrounds the small compound with two gates opening into the street. Half if the wall however was destroyed by the earthquake and concrete and rubble fill the courtyard.

Because the orphanage building is unsafe the children must sleep outside. Mission Love Seeds brought several tents that were donated before leaving which we setup before going to bed. A small slab of concrete has been swept off and each child has a 2×4 foot UNICEF mat and blanket they sleep on each night. This is also where we will sleep.

PART II… next post
SUBSCRIBE to my blog via email

RESOURCES
Diakonos International
Mission Love Seeds

Guards at the gate of the Jimani border crossing into Haiti. February 2010

As we enter Port-Au-Prince the streets are lined with vendors as people shop before the sun goes down. February2010

Tents that were donated were setup in courtyard for kids to sleep. February 2010 Haiti

A child gets ready for bed in one of the new tents. February 2010 Haiti

I did some changes on the site today. I added a new homepage and updated my portfolio page. If you would like to see the portfolio on black you can go HERE. You can go to earlb.com to see the updated homepage.

A partially destroyed building in Port-Au-Prince, February 10, 2010 earlb.com

As I am putting together my images from Haiti, I scan the net daily for interesting websites and photography about what is going on there. Today I came across the “Voices of Haiti” website which I found interesting.

The site is a photo essay by Jeremy Cowart who asks the question, “What do you have to say about all this?” to those affected by the earthquake. For the next 60 days he is posting an image a day of each response. Jeremy is also selling prints with 100% of the proceeds, minus printing and shipping, going to buy much needed tents for the Home in Haiti project. Jeremy’s photography is amazing and the site is well worth checking out.

Visit Voices of Haiti to see Jeremy’s work.

I recently watched the movie War Photographer by Christian Frei.The film was released in 2001 and won numerous awards. It’s a documentary about photojournalist James Nachtwey and his career as a war photographer.

Nachtwey has spent much of his career covering conflict in many different regions of the world. Many times he puts himself in great danger to document the story.

A recent post on PhotoPhilanthropy.org titled, “War photographer: a dangerous idolatry“, brings up the question about moral obligations surrounding war photography and applying it to photojournalism or humanitarian photography.

The article discusses the issues about photographers obtaining permission to photograph their subjects. It states that in war type situations it may be difficult to obtain permission but in “non-violent-photography” there should be “some level of collaboration between photographer and subject”.

In War Photographer you see examples of both. In one instance Nachtwey is shooting during intense fighting where asking permission would be impossible and in another scene Nachtwey is documenting a family grieving over a lost family member. In the latter he states, “Those pictures could not have been made unless I was accepted by the people I’m photographing”, referring to the fact he had collaborated with the family prior to shooting.

Hans Durrer wrote an article on Soundscapes stating, “when the people portrayed feel ashamed of their portraits, there clearly is something wrong with this kind of photography.” Durrer believes there should be “chemistry” and “collaboration” between the photographer and the subject.

My personal opinion is, it depends on the photographer and the situation. More so the situation. The photographer ultimately is going to have to make the decision on how to shoot their subject. Typically I do have some type collaboration with my subject before shooting, but have also shot without asking permission. In both cases I felt like I captured the moment in a respectful manner.

Below are two of my images. The “Child Praying” image was shot on the spur of the moment, while the image od the “Old Man” was taken after some collaboration.

Filipino Child Praying - June 2006

Old Man in Dhaka Bangladesh - Feb 2010

Both Gregory and Durrer’s articles bring up great points and I think neither is right or wrong, they are just part of the ongoing debate.

NOTE: In this article I use the term “photographer” referring mainly to photojournalist, humanitarian photographers, and war photographers.

Feel free to post your comments on the topic below.

RESOURCES:
War photographer: a dangerous idolatry
Soundscapes – Hans Durrer
War Photographer – Documentary
James Nachtwey

Several images I took in Haiti after the January 2010 earthquake were used in a video for the song “In the Name of Love” performed by the Gospel and Urban group Krystaal. The video states, “Proceeds go to World Vision’s Haiti Emergency Relief fund.” Below is the video used to promote the song via the Internet.

NOTE: Please use the Retweet button to pass this page to others!

Watch “In the Name of Love”

You can also download “In the Name of Love” Here

Krystaal - Save a Child Poster for "In the Name of Love"

The battle continues year after year for photographers, Canon vs Nikon. I have to admit I think both are extremely good cameras and each have their own pluses or minuses. In the end though I refer to the old saying, “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, meaning it’s really the person behind the camera that makes the difference.

But getting back to the initial topic.

Which camera do you prefer, Canon or Nikon? Why?
What type photography do you shoot?

A boy stands on the street corner in Santo Domingo playing PSP with a small billboard ad on his back

We met Martine and Jean Luc of Diakonos International who have an orphanage in the town of Carrefour, just west of Port-Au-Prince. The orphanage is home to some forty children. Tomorrow morning we plan on taking a bus from Santo Domingo to Port-Au-Prince. Hopefully we can leave around 8am as it may be an 8 hour trip.

Out of the nine bags we brought only one is missing. Unfortunately it’s the one with Barbi and Lisa’s tent. Because of aftershocks it is not safe to sleep inside so the tent issue will be something to contend with tomorrow.

Probably the strangest thing today was we had to wait an hour while our plane was de-iced…in Florida.

On February 8th I will be traveling to Haiti. I am going to document a small orphanage outside of Port-Au-Prince that takes care of 35-40 children. This orphanage has very little support and often wonder where the meals will come from each day.

I count on having no way to post dispatches via the Internet but will post text message updates to this page. Hopefully they will show up under “Latest Updates” in the far right column.

Our plan is to land in the Dominican Republic. We will stay overnight in Santo Domingo and begin early Tuesday morning making our way toward the Haitian border. Once in Haiti we will stay in a small town called Carrefour on the outskirts of Port-Au-Prince.

Enter your email address in the top right to get earlb.com updates or Click Here to subscribe.

I posted a few days ago about humanitarian photographer Zoriah traveling to Haiti to cover the earthquake. Well Zoriah has posted some images from Haiti. Goto zoriah.net to see his update and images.
WARNING- Some of the images are graphic.

I encourage everyone to contribute what they can and remember Haiti will need help in months and years to come.

Updated Via iPhone